Meet Mickayel Thurin

We recently connected with Mickayel Thurin and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mickayel, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?

Learning to care for myself has been a long journey. From a young age, I believed keeping others comfortable would keep me safe. That belief shaped me into a people-pleaser and even guided a second career in human resources. But constantly prioritizing others came at the cost of my own wellbeing. I ignored my needs, dimmed my light, and eventually burned out. I became depressed and lost trust in myself.

Around 2020, after years of panic attacks and exhaustion, I realized something had to change. I began meditating and setting goals, but more importantly, I started learning to love and trust myself. It wasn’t easy—I had spent my life avoiding feelings. With practice, therapy, and support, I learned to face discomfort, name my emotions, and process old wounds. Discovering I had ADHD also helped me adopt new coping tools.

Self-care became central to my healing. I practiced mindfulness, said affirmations in the mirror, and reminded myself daily that I am worthy and enough. I learned to say no, to speak up for my inner child, and to prioritize rest. Baths, journaling, and slowing down became ways to refill my own cup. Over time, I began serving others from that overflow instead of self-sacrifice.

Now I advocate for myself as much as for others. I trust myself, embrace lessons in hardship, and see life as happening for me, not to me. I look forward to each moment and I’m erasing my limitations.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a mixed media artist. I have also held the titles of a mom, wife, HR Manager, and founder of a nonprofit that supported marginalized communities. Through all these roles, one constant has remained: I am an artist.

Creating is when I feel most authentically myself. Making art feels like meditation—time disappears as I play with materials, letting them guide me, exploring where they want to go. It restores me, helps me process emotions and experiences, and keeps me grounded.

Even though my practice is deeply personal, it often resonates with others. Viewers have shared their own stories, sometimes with tears or joy, saying my work feels like it was made for them. That exchange reminds me that while I create for myself, the byproduct is connection: my art becomes an invitation for others to notice their own inner worlds and nervous systems, and to process alongside me.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three qualities/skills that I think were most impactful to getting me where I am now are: being curious about why things are the way they are, being willing to have fun, and being honest. I have always been someone who wanted to know why things are as they are (my brain especially). Human behavior fascinates me and it is something I am always trying to learn more about. I am a hyper focuser, which stems from my ADHD. I think because I was not great at communicating or fitting in as a kid, I attempted to fix it by hyperfixating and learning about how people communicate and why people feel how they feel. This way I could understand them and fit in better. I love learning people’s histories and pasts and seeing how it shows up in the actions of their present. How it frames their interactions. Being that way has forced me to keep an open mind, learn to view things from multiple (sometimes contradicting perspectives). I am a believer in gathering data to make the best decisions and also I think being able to adapt is important. The world is always changing. I also am pretty fun loving by default. I like to do things I enjoy. I follow my joy. I think I live a more joyous life because of that and I try not to take myself or others too seriously. Lastly honesty is important to me. I want to be authentically myself so I have to be honest with myself and others for that to work. I feel like if I can’t be brave enough to be myself, what am I even doing?

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

In the last year, my biggest area of growth and improvement has been learning to be patient. Waiting and being with my thoughts, sitting with my emotions had always made me uncomfortable. Even doing “boring” tasks, were things I avoided because they gave my brain leeway to feel my feelings (which I did not like to do). I wanted to be onto the fun exciting distracting tasks. But in the last year I had a baby and life has drastically slowed down. My artistic practice even slowed down. I had to learn to embrace the slowness. Find the glimmer moments in it. Enjoy the journey type of thing. This was harder than I thought it should be, but then I became curious about why these moments bothered me so much and realized how much I avoided discomfort of stillness and the limitations that put on how I lived my life. So I challenged myself to notice it, and lean into it. Slowly, I began to dare myself to stay present in the boringness, in the commonplace tasks of washing the dishes, cleaning, changing diapers, brushing my teeth, doing paperwork, etc.. They became little opportunities for meditation or just stillness, or feeling something and learning about my state of mind. They became moments to express gratitude or wonder and appreciation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mthurin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickathurin/

Image Credits

All my original artwork